Using Technology to Aid Learning
Research supports the claim that technology can be an aid to learning, but not all uses of technology aid learning. Designing quality computer-based lessons is very demanding on teachers. Teachers are more likely to have students use computers for routine skills practice and are less likely to have students use computers to make presentations, do analytic work, revise and publish text, or engage in exploratory and problem-solving activities.
Youth today grow up tinkering with technology, social networking, multitasking, and viewing multiple forms of media. They are exposed to so much technology that it has changed the way they absorb information. Overall they absorb, process, and interpret information differently from previous generations. To motivate students to learn, teachers need to design learning that combines youth technology practices with effective learning practices. It is important for teachers to look at the research to determine what technology would be effective in their areas that is worth the time, effort, and expense required.
Integrating Laptops in Instructional Practices
This study examines the ways in which two primary grade teachers in a predominantly low-income, minority school integrated laptops in their instructional practices, and the impact it had on the academics of their students as compared to their peers in the same school who were without laptops. It is important that technology was used as part of a model that emphasized project-based learning and construction of knowledge rather than recitation of drill and practice.
Throughout the year, the third grade teacher was able to implement a variety of sustained projects that integrated laptop computers:
In language arts, students used TimeLinerto create interactive timelines that featured the biographies of authors studied in class. They also used multimedia to create electronic storybooks modeled after fairytales read in class and published reports that were supplemented with their own illustrations.
In mathematics, they worked in cooperative groups using spreadsheets to gather and analyze data collected from conducting classroom polls. These activities were essential for mastering elements of graphing, a required curriculum unit.
Finally, in science, they frequently used the Internet to look up information and Inspiration to organize their understanding into concept maps. The concept maps revealed what the students were understanding and helped the teacher identify misunderstandings and plan appropriate instruction.
In the fourth grade class, learning was also primarily structured around sustained projects that utilized laptops to promote problem solving and knowledge construction within a meaningful context:
Students had opportunities to choose topics based on their own interests, collaborate with their peers, and assume different roles.
They had opportunities to raise questions, gather and analyze science data from their local school yard using spreadsheets, and create learning material for their peers in the form of electronic newsletters.
In the process, students were forced to explain and defend their ideas thus developing a better conceptual understanding of the issues at hand.
The result of the study showed that laptops created motivation and engagement in school work, influenced classroom interaction, empowered students, and academic gains were made in writing and math among laptop groups.
Multimedia in American History Class
This study was conducted to see if the addition of multimedia software to an American history curriculum would significantly raise student achievement scores on standards-based tests. The software used was an online middle school curriculum designed to help students learn the content and skills specified by state and national academic standards in a student-centered, multi-media-rich manner appealing to a wide variety of learning styles and interests. The results of the study showed that students in the experimental group with the use of the software increased their mean test scores approximately twice as much as students in the control group.
Technology and interactive multimedia is playing a vital role in the effort to move history and social studies from the rote memorization of dates and information toward a more student-centered, hands-on, authentic learning experience. Social Studies/history is still being taught using traditional methods with teacher lectures and textbook activities. Mounting evidence suggests that students generally find history and social studies dull and unimportant, that they have difficulty understanding their textbooks, and that overall, they remember very little of what they learned.
Multimedia technology can support history and social studies learning by promoting student-centered instruction, increasing learner motivation, and extending and deepening understandings of historic and civic concepts. The addition of multimedia software to the curriculum adds sensory stimulation and the interaction of the software parallels the way students learn by doing and navigating.
In this study, 5th grade math students used a software called ASSISTment when doing their math homework. ASSISTment is a tutoring system based on a cognitive model that is able to acknowledge if the students have a part of the question correct. It breaks the problem down and asks questions in steps, giving the student feedback if they miss a step. Students gets immediate help with homework and learning progresses more than with the traditional homework method because they are able to more forward and not wait until the next day for assistance. The results of this study showed that 5th grade math students learned significantly more with web-based homework than with traditional paper-and-pencil homework.
In addition to better learning results, teachers can take advantage of the convenience of having homework automatically graded and recorded. With the ASSISTment system, teachers can also pinpoint exactly where students are having difficulties and get reports on which skills to address in class for individual students or the class as a whole. Content is relatively easy to develop in the system and can be created in a fraction of a time needed to develop content in other tutoring systems.
One limitation of the system is that it is not able to grade open responses or essay-type questions, and teachers are limited to multiple-choice or short-answer questions. Currently, this would limit tutoring to subjects like math and science and would not work as well for subjects like English and history.
Mobile wireless devices provide portability, social interaction, remote access, and flexibility. This study investigates the use of wireless technologies in education with particular reference to the potential of learning new technical English Language words using SMS text messaging. The system, developed by the authors is called the Mobile Learning Tool (MOLT). The beauty of using mobile technology is that the learning process can take place away from the classroom environment while students are involved with their other activities. Wireless technologies make anytime, anywhere education possible.
New words and their meanings were sent to students throughout the day using text messaging. The teacher had to load the words and the phone numbers into the software loaded on to a PC, and the students then had to keep their phones on throughout the day to receive words and meanings.
The result of the study indicated that the software needed more work to make it more functional and useful, but students enjoyed using the tool and having the flexibility of learning anywhere, anytime. In the future it would be nice to send video, pictures and sounds for pronunciation, and short lecture notes from the teacher. The authors concluded that if the improvements and modifications suggested by students were added to the system then MOLT as an educational tool would have a positive contribution to the motivation and success of students.
Two major obstacles to using problem-based learning methods with writing in elementary school classrooms are the time it takes to design the learning environment and the time required for students to interact at their own pace with the problems used to encourage student writing.
This study examined if game elements could be used along with Problem Based Learning in a digital learning environment to improve student writing. Little research has been done into the use of games as a support for learning to write or as a means of allowing students to practice their skills. Much of the application of technology in writing instruction has been related to the use of the word-processor for student writing. Although the word-processor may enhance writing outcome, it does little to enhance writing instruction, provide feedback, or encourage reflection.
The Anytown multi-user virtual environment was created using the Active Worlds browser. The design of the Anytown environment was intended to create a small town feeling in which the locations, people, and other objects would be mostly familiar to the majority of participating students. Learners are given the role of cub reporters investigating a series of mysterious events: vandalism, a burning building, and strange lights emanating from the town's river. The use of feedback, character dialogue, as well as visual and textual clue resources are used to drive activities.
Students receive textual cues by clicking on objects and characters, which provide them with information about their environment and the writing process, and offer positive feedback related to their progress when appropriate. Text responses appropriate to the character's personality and role provide feedback and interactivity. Students sometimes had to complete related tasks in order to elicit responses from particular people in a way similar to how people respond to each other in the real world. The teacher in the classroom played the role of editor of the newspaper and provided both positive and negative feedback to student writing after each session.
Results from the study included statistically significant decreases in teacher time spent answering procedural and directional questions, increased voluntary student writing, and improved standardized achievement scores on writing tasks.
Virtual Reality Game for Advancing Overall Business Knowledge
To succeed today in the global marketplace, employees need overall business knowledge, not task specific skills. They need a holistic business understanding. They need to be able to take imperfect information and make complex decisions. They need to be able to collaborate in a team environment. The common problem with learning these skills in traditional environments is over-simplification. A good learning environment should enhance the ability to deal with complexity, and it should be demonstrated authentically. Virtual reality game simulations are complex learning environments that meet this standard.
The simulation game model used in this study is called RealGame. It has been designed to describe the actual business operations and functions of a manufacturing company. In RealGame there are a maximum of eight companies competing against each other, and the markets, suppliers, and funding organizations are common to all participating companies. The companies are steered by teams of three participants. Virtual customers trigger demand according to price, marketing, and quality of product. The game gives details about the companies such as: inventory, raw materials pricing, sales pricing, production process, delivery methods, funding, and marketing. RealGame asks questions, and teams must answer within a specific timeframe. The different teams must analyze the knowledge the game gives them and collaborate on their decisions. The complexity of the game provides an authentic learning experience.
Feedback from students who participated was very positive. Respondents mentioned intensity, complexity, and the holistic view on business operations as the most important factors contributing to their success in the game. This seems to imply that the complexity in the game is dynamic in the sense that each gaming session will take its own shape depending on the actions of the different teams as a whole.
The game setting, where the participants are organized in teams, requires the participants to reason and justify their views to the other team members. Formulating and carrying out a strategy should be a joint effort during which the team members share their expertise and knowledge. The teams' collective learning experience produces shared views and goals according to which the teams run their companies. Teamwork was regarded as utterly important both as a thing to learn and as an essential factor contributing to the success of the companies.
The empowerment of the teams to act independently, make decisions, and learn by doing are implicitly embedded in a simulation game exercise. It is the very nature of simulation gaming that the game participants are given free hands on planning their company's strategy and in implementing it.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the ability to build knowledge with technology is a powerful tool in the hands of well-prepared teachers. There are many examples of technology that when used correctly have a great impact on learning in ways that were unavailable to us until recently.
Administrators and teachers should be working to incorporate more technology into their classrooms, but in my opinion, with the heavy burden placed on teachers today, the added burden of preparing quality technology lesson plans will hinder the educational technology movement from moving quickly. The movement may be moved forward by the educational establishment making curriculum changes and providing professional training that makes it easier for teachers to incorporate effective technology.
It is the wave of the future, and I believe educational technology will eventually be used in every classroom in a variety of ways, and teachers will function more as facilitators and coaches in all classes.
Using Technology to Aid Learning
Research supports the claim that technology can be an aid to learning, but not all uses of technology aid learning. Designing quality computer-based lessons is very demanding on teachers. Teachers are more likely to have students use computers for routine skills practice and are less likely to have students use computers to make presentations, do analytic work, revise and publish text, or engage in exploratory and problem-solving activities.
Youth today grow up tinkering with technology, social networking, multitasking, and viewing multiple forms of media. They are exposed to so much technology that it has changed the way they absorb information. Overall they absorb, process, and interpret information differently from previous generations. To motivate students to learn, teachers need to design learning that combines youth technology practices with effective learning practices. It is important for teachers to look at the research to determine what technology would be effective in their areas that is worth the time, effort, and expense required.
Integrating Laptops in Instructional Practices
This study examines the ways in which two primary grade teachers in a predominantly low-income, minority school integrated laptops in their instructional practices, and the impact it had on the academics of their students as compared to their peers in the same school who were without laptops. It is important that technology was used as part of a model that emphasized project-based learning and construction of knowledge rather than recitation of drill and practice.
Throughout the year, the third grade teacher was able to implement a variety of sustained projects that integrated laptop computers:
In the fourth grade class, learning was also primarily structured around sustained projects that utilized laptops to promote problem solving and knowledge construction within a meaningful context:
The result of the study showed that laptops created motivation and engagement in school work, influenced classroom interaction, empowered students, and academic gains were made in writing and math among laptop groups.
Multimedia in American History Class
This study was conducted to see if the addition of multimedia software to an American history curriculum would significantly raise student achievement scores on standards-based tests. The software used was an online middle school curriculum designed to help students learn the content and skills specified by state and national academic standards in a student-centered, multi-media-rich manner appealing to a wide variety of learning styles and interests. The results of the study showed that students in the experimental group with the use of the software increased their mean test scores approximately twice as much as students in the control group.
Technology and interactive multimedia is playing a vital role in the effort to move history and social studies from the rote memorization of dates and information toward a more student-centered, hands-on, authentic learning experience. Social Studies/history is still being taught using traditional methods with teacher lectures and textbook activities. Mounting evidence suggests that students generally find history and social studies dull and unimportant, that they have difficulty understanding their textbooks, and that overall, they remember very little of what they learned.
Multimedia technology can support history and social studies learning by promoting student-centered instruction, increasing learner motivation, and extending and deepening understandings of historic and civic concepts. The addition of multimedia software to the curriculum adds sensory stimulation and the interaction of the software parallels the way students learn by doing and navigating.
Follow these links to find multimedia history lessons on the Web: http://www.historycentral.com/Educators/Index.htmland http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/multimedia.cfm
Computer-Supported Homework
In this study, 5th grade math students used a software called ASSISTment when doing their math homework. ASSISTment is a tutoring system based on a cognitive model that is able to acknowledge if the students have a part of the question correct. It breaks the problem down and asks questions in steps, giving the student feedback if they miss a step. Students gets immediate help with homework and learning progresses more than with the traditional homework method because they are able to more forward and not wait until the next day for assistance. The results of this study showed that 5th grade math students learned significantly more with web-based homework than with traditional paper-and-pencil homework.
In addition to better learning results, teachers can take advantage of the convenience of having homework automatically graded and recorded. With the ASSISTment system, teachers can also pinpoint exactly where students are having difficulties and get reports on which skills to address in class for individual students or the class as a whole. Content is relatively easy to develop in the system and can be created in a fraction of a time needed to develop content in other tutoring systems.
One limitation of the system is that it is not able to grade open responses or essay-type questions, and teachers are limited to multiple-choice or short-answer questions. Currently, this would limit tutoring to subjects like math and science and would not work as well for subjects like English and history.
I could not find ASSISTment online, but I did find a variety of Math tutoring software online: http://www.mathtutor.com/math-educational-software.html, http://www.infomath.com/
Mobile Phones Enable Learning
Mobile wireless devices provide portability, social interaction, remote access, and flexibility. This study investigates the use of wireless technologies in education with particular reference to the potential of learning new technical English Language words using SMS text messaging. The system, developed by the authors is called the Mobile Learning Tool (MOLT). The beauty of using mobile technology is that the learning process can take place away from the classroom environment while students are involved with their other activities. Wireless technologies make anytime, anywhere education possible.
New words and their meanings were sent to students throughout the day using text messaging. The teacher had to load the words and the phone numbers into the software loaded on to a PC, and the students then had to keep their phones on throughout the day to receive words and meanings.
The result of the study indicated that the software needed more work to make it more functional and useful, but students enjoyed using the tool and having the flexibility of learning anywhere, anytime. In the future it would be nice to send video, pictures and sounds for pronunciation, and short lecture notes from the teacher. The authors concluded that if the improvements and modifications suggested by students were added to the system then MOLT as an educational tool would have a positive contribution to the motivation and success of students.
I could not find MOLT on the web but this link provides information on other mobile learning tools: http://www.mlearning.com/?gclid=CLbQ8tSRoZ0CFRtO2godHTqzyw
Virtual Reality Game for Improving Writing
Two major obstacles to using problem-based learning methods with writing in elementary school classrooms are the time it takes to design the learning environment and the time required for students to interact at their own pace with the problems used to encourage student writing.
This study examined if game elements could be used along with Problem Based Learning in a digital learning environment to improve student writing. Little research has been done into the use of games as a support for learning to write or as a means of allowing students to practice their skills. Much of the application of technology in writing instruction has been related to the use of the word-processor for student writing. Although the word-processor may enhance writing outcome, it does little to enhance writing instruction, provide feedback, or encourage reflection.
The Anytown multi-user virtual environment was created using the Active Worlds browser. The design of the Anytown environment was intended to create a small town feeling in which the locations, people, and other objects would be mostly familiar to the majority of participating students. Learners are given the role of cub reporters investigating a series of mysterious events: vandalism, a burning building, and strange lights emanating from the town's river. The use of feedback, character dialogue, as well as visual and textual clue resources are used to drive activities.
Students receive textual cues by clicking on objects and characters, which provide them with information about their environment and the writing process, and offer positive feedback related to their progress when appropriate. Text responses appropriate to the character's personality and role provide feedback and interactivity. Students sometimes had to complete related tasks in order to elicit responses from particular people in a way similar to how people respond to each other in the real world. The teacher in the classroom played the role of editor of the newspaper and provided both positive and negative feedback to student writing after each session.
Results from the study included statistically significant decreases in teacher time spent answering procedural and directional questions, increased voluntary student writing, and improved standardized achievement scores on writing tasks.
Virtual Reality Game for Advancing Overall Business Knowledge
To succeed today in the global marketplace, employees need overall business knowledge, not task specific skills. They need a holistic business understanding. They need to be able to take imperfect information and make complex decisions. They need to be able to collaborate in a team environment. The common problem with learning these skills in traditional environments is over-simplification. A good learning environment should enhance the ability to deal with complexity, and it should be demonstrated authentically. Virtual reality game simulations are complex learning environments that meet this standard.
The simulation game model used in this study is called RealGame. It has been designed to describe the actual business operations and functions of a manufacturing company. In RealGame there are a maximum of eight companies competing against each other, and the markets, suppliers, and funding organizations are common to all participating companies. The companies are steered by teams of three participants. Virtual customers trigger demand according to price, marketing, and quality of product. The game gives details about the companies such as: inventory, raw materials pricing, sales pricing, production process, delivery methods, funding, and marketing. RealGame asks questions, and teams must answer within a specific timeframe. The different teams must analyze the knowledge the game gives them and collaborate on their decisions. The complexity of the game provides an authentic learning experience.
Feedback from students who participated was very positive. Respondents mentioned intensity, complexity, and the holistic view on business operations as the most important factors contributing to their success in the game. This seems to imply that the complexity in the game is dynamic in the sense that each gaming session will take its own shape depending on the actions of the different teams as a whole.
The game setting, where the participants are organized in teams, requires the participants to reason and justify their views to the other team members. Formulating and carrying out a strategy should be a joint effort during which the team members share their expertise and knowledge. The teams' collective learning experience produces shared views and goals according to which the teams run their companies. Teamwork was regarded as utterly important both as a thing to learn and as an essential factor contributing to the success of the companies.
The empowerment of the teams to act independently, make decisions, and learn by doing are implicitly embedded in a simulation game exercise. It is the very nature of simulation gaming that the game participants are given free hands on planning their company's strategy and in implementing it.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the ability to build knowledge with technology is a powerful tool in the hands of well-prepared teachers. There are many examples of technology that when used correctly have a great impact on learning in ways that were unavailable to us until recently.
Administrators and teachers should be working to incorporate more technology into their classrooms, but in my opinion, with the heavy burden placed on teachers today, the added burden of preparing quality technology lesson plans will hinder the educational technology movement from moving quickly. The movement may be moved forward by the educational establishment making curriculum changes and providing professional training that makes it easier for teachers to incorporate effective technology.
It is the wave of the future, and I believe educational technology will eventually be used in every classroom in a variety of ways, and teachers will function more as facilitators and coaches in all classes.